The outlet cited several former high-ranking officials from theGeorge W. Bushadministration who said they could no longer recognize the Republican Party after claims that current lawmakers didn’t do enough to denounce Trump’s baseless election fraud claims.
Those who spoke to Reuters include Jimmy Gurulé, the undersecretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence under Bush; Kristopher Purcell, a former communications official; and Rosario Marin, a former treasurer of the U.S.
“The Republican Party as I knew it no longer exists,” said Gurulé, who also previously served as an assistant attorney general under former PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush. “I’d call it the cult of Trump.”
According to Purcell, some “60 to 70 former Bush officials have decided to leave the party or are cutting ties with it” in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack, Reuters reported.
Purcell also told the outlet that the party’s failure to reject lawmakers who embrace conspiracy theories — such as Georgia Rep.Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose social media activity has endorsed calls for violence against Democrats and repeatedly spreadbizarre and baselessclaims — is further proof that the party’s principles have eroded.
Donald Trump.Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP/Shutterstock
Many Republicans condemned the violence of the Capitol attacks, though147 Republican lawmakersalso went forward with blocking the certification of the election of PresidentJoe Bidenjust hours after the Capitol was stormed. Five people died following the Jan. 6 attack.
The RNC also sent PEOPLE a link to a JanuaryAssociated Pressstory in which McDaniel said Republicans needed to work together rather than attack one another. McDaniel told the AP that the party would remain “neutral” in the next presidential primary rather than focusing on Trump, should he choose to run again.
“If we’re fighting each other every day and attacking each other and brandishing party purism, we’re not going to accomplish what we need to win back the House and take back the Senate, and that’s my priority,” McDaniel said.
While Bush, 74, has remained largely apolitical — at least publicly — since leaving office, he diddenounce the insurrectionand the actions that spurred it in a strongly-worded statement issued hours after it began to unfold.
“Laura and I are watching the scenes of mayhem unfolding at the seat of our Nation’s government in disbelief and dismay. It is a sickening and heartbreaking sight,” Bush’s statement read. “This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic — not our democratic republic.”
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Center, from left: former President George W. Bush and wife Laura Bush.JOSHUA ROBERTS/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Bush was among the former presidents to attend Biden’s inauguration at the Capitol last month and appeared alongsideBarack ObamaandBill Clintonin a primetime television special celebrating the occasion that night.
“I think the fact that the three of us are standing here talking about a peaceful transfer of power speaks to the institutional integrity of our country,” Bush said on Jan. 20.
Many Republican senators have indicated they willnot vote to convict, however. Their unwillingness to completely disavow Trump — and his attempts to overthrow the election results — seemed to have been the final straw for many Republicans, Marin told Reuters.
“If it continues to be the party of Trump, many of us are not going back,” she said. “Unless the Senate convicts him, and rids themselves of the Trump cancer, many of us will not be going back to vote for Republican leaders.”
Despite this belief, and despite Trump leaving office with his lowest approval rating on record, polling shows the 45th president remains popular with the Republican base. He has launched a post-White House team to continue his political activities as well, aides say.
source: people.com
